


Escape from Limbo

by Nokomis



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Limbo, Peter Quill's daddy issues, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), everyone's dead and they're pissed about it, gratuitous kurt russell references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-15 21:07:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14797970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nokomis/pseuds/Nokomis
Summary: Peter Quill doesn’t quite know what he expected death to be like, but he wasn’t expecting to find a freaking Dairy Queen filled with everyone who died on Titan. (Post-Infinity War fix-it, of sorts)





	Escape from Limbo

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes fix-it fic can feature a healthy appreciation for Kurt Russell.

“So death isn’t exactly what I expected,” Peter said as soon as he felt _solid_ again. He wasn’t sure where he was -- he wasn’t on Titan anymore, and this sure as hell wasn’t Kansas, either -- but he did know that he didn’t feel any different. It was light here, but he didn’t feel like he was in heaven, either. He didn’t feel enlightened and definitely not angelic.

He patted himself down and he still had everything he’d had on him when he’d… when he’d freakin’ disintegrated. Jacket, blasters, his mask, everything except the corporeal world.

“I expected peace,” Mantis said softly. Peter managed to be cool and not jump like he’d seen a ghost, even though, hell, he was pretty sure they were both ghosts.

“Mantis! Fancy seeing you here,” he said loudly, trying to fill the silence that surrounded them. “Have you seen anyone else? Maybe Gamora, by some chance?”

Mantis shook her head, her feelers glowing lightly as she assessed the situation. “There’s… There are a lot of feelings, I just don’t know who they belong to.”

“Great,” Peter said. “First we get our asses kicked, then we get vaporized, and now I’m dead and I don’t even get to hang out with my girl. Today sucks.”

Mantis held up her hands and said, “Do you want me to ease your suffering?”

“Nah, dude, but thanks,” Peter said. “Let’s just walk or something. Maybe there’s something out there.”

“Perhaps,” Mantis said hopefully, “there’s dessert.”

*

“Holy shit,” Peter said a short time later, when something red and glowing appeared in the mists. 

“We have found royalty!” Mantis said happily, clapping her hands. “They will know what to do.”

“No, this isn’t… it’s not royalty,” Peter said, excitement thrumming through his bones. Maybe death didn’t suck so much after all. “It’s a Dairy Queen! My mom used to take me here all the time. I haven’t had real ice cream since I left Terra. Space has a lot of cool shit but good ice cream? That’s something you aliens haven’t perfected yet.”

Mantis cheered and followed him as he half-walked, half-jogged towards the DQ. It was only when the restaurant appeared clearly through the mists, the same exact brick building that Peter remembered from childhood, with the red tin roof and sign out front advertising banana splits, that it occurred to him that this shouldn’t be here.

He stopped so suddenly that Mantis ran into his back with a soft _whump_.

“This has to be a trap,” he hissed to her. “We can’t go in there.”

“We’re piles of dust,” Mantis reminded him. “What can happen?”

“I just gotta bad feeling about this, is all,” Peter said, squinting at the building. The lights were on inside and he could see the vague outlines of people moving around. The parking lot was empty except for one particularly bitchin’ blue Cobra. “Maybe we should keep going.”

Mantis reached up and patted his cheek gently, and Peter could feel his fear leeching away. “It is fine, Peter. There is nothing else than can harm us.”

“You get a guidebook that I didn’t?” Peter grumbled, but followed Mantis towards the Dairy Queen anyway. She was right, they were already dead, and at least this way they might get ice cream instead of just wandering the void aimlessly.

“Ego changed things quite frequently,” Mantis said. “Change is not to be feared, he said.”

“This is one helluva change,” Peter muttered, the peace Mantis had given him dissipating with the mention of his father, and stepped onto the parking lot. Even the smell replicated the Dairy Queen he’d grown up going to: fried foods and the way car exhaust seemed to linger in the Missouri heat, despite the fact that there shouldn’t be pollution in whatever realm of death that they’d found themselves in.

He held the door open for her as they went inside. No use for caution now, he’d already fucked everything up beyond repair.

The inside was just as he remembered, red plastic seats and a counter sticky with ice cream. Steve Miller Band sang quietly about being a space cowboy over the speakers. There were three people already inside: Drax, and two of the humans from Titan.

“Quill!” Drax said, and Peter tried to push back the memory of the last time he’d said that. “There you are. Look, I am consuming a storm!”

“A Blizzard, man, totally different thing,” said the kid in the red suit. He had an impressively huge sundae in front of him that Peter was like ninety percent sure hadn’t been on the menu. Apparently death-realm Dairy Queens could make anything. Good to know.

“I want to try!” Mantis said cheerfully, sliding into the booth. 

Peter glanced at the wizard-dude. “Any ideas what this place is?”

“Some,” he replied.

Peter waited until it became clear that he was just going to be an a-hole and not answer, and he turned to Drax. “Have you seen anyone else?”

Drax looked sadly down. “I have not seen our comrades, nor have I seen my beloved and my daughter. I had hoped we would be reunited in death, but Thanos has destroyed even that.”

He slurped his shake.

Mantis slid in beside him, touched Drax’s hand gently and began to sob.

“Uh, is she okay?” the kid asks, looking alarmed. “I mean, I know we all just died, but that was… sudden?”

“Yeah, she’s good,” Peter said. He looked around, but Gamora and Rocket and Groot didn’t magically materialized.

Neither did his mom, which…. Peter hadn’t been hoping, not really, but they had spent so much time sitting in booths just like these. It felt like she should be there, smiling and humming under her breath.

“So my big question is, what the hell just happened?” the kid asked, looking at them all like they might have answers. 

“We all died,” Drax said, sounding wholly unperturbed by the concept. 

“Obviously,” the kid said. “It means that Thanos got his way, right? So how do we un-do it?”

“Don’t think we can,” Peter said, pulling a chair from a nearby table and sitting on it backwards at the end of the table. “Death’s a one-way ticket, squirt.”

“Is it, though?” the kid said. “I mean, I know lots of dead people and none of them are here. I think we’re in some sort of limbo, not the actual afterlife.”

Peter thought of his mom and Gamora and Yondu and the fact that he was sitting here, post-death, chatting with the costumed idiots that he’d died with. “”I like your theory. Let’s go with that. How would we escape limbo? Let’s hear some ideas, guys.”

Twenty minutes later, all they had established were their names. It turned out the kid was also a Peter, which resulted in Peter trying to high-five him while the kid went in for a fist bump, which became their secret Peter handshake. Little Peter -- as Peter dubbed him, much to Little Peter’s chagrin -- begged him to never call it that again, but Peter refused to let a good dick joke die.

“I mean, the problem is we’re in completely theoretical territory here,” Little Peter said. “Unless Mr. Wizard-man has a suggestion? Since you took a sneak peek at the future? We’re dead, dude, spoilers are fine.”

He turned to Doctor Strange. “I don’t think it’s wise to share future outcomes with you at this moment,” he said after a moment.

Total d-bag. Peter wondered if you could kick someone into a different limbo. 

The suggestions seemed to mostly center around ‘stay here’ or ‘maybe leave?’ so Peter, sighing at the lack of anything useful to do, went to go get some ice cream at the counter. He didn’t have any credits on him -- not that Dairy Queen accepted credits -- but no one else seemed to have any trouble getting food.

There was a small bell sitting on the counter and Peter tapped it, waiting for some generic employee to walk out.

Instead it was his dad. Not the pseudo-benevolent mom-killer that he met, but a younger, smiling version that said, “Oh hey, Peter, good to see you!” like Peter hadn’t killed him the last time they’d been face to face.

“Um, what the actual hell,” Peter said. “You’re dead.”

“So’re you,” Ego said, pushing an errant curl out of his face. He looked at Peter with a tilted-back head, like he was memorizing his features. “You look like Meredith, did I ever say?”

“I’m shocked you can remember her name,” Peter said. His hand itched to reach for his blaster, but he held himself in check. “Why don’t I get to see her? Why, out of every dead person in my life, are _you_ here?”

Even Peter’s death sucked, everything was unfair.

“What, you don’t recognize the place?” Ego said. He reached behind the counter and pulled out a chocolate sundae with extra cherries, just like Peter’s mom would always order. “I made it for you.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t want it,” Peter said, pushing the sundae back towards Ego. “I want to be alive and kicking Thanos’ ass right now.”

“Bet you wish you’d kept your godlike powers, huh,” Ego said smugly. “Would have come in handy.”

It turned out that punching your dead dad was extremely satisfying. Peter’s knuckles didn’t even bruise. It wasn’t quite punching-Thanos levels of satisfying, but this, at least, didn’t contribute to the end of the world.

“Glad you got that out of your system,” Ego said, a smirk playing on the corner of his mouth. A tiny trickle of blood appeared, and it somehow just made him look tougher. Peter had apparently missed out on a few key genes. “Are you ready to talk now?”

“No, I’m not talking to you, not ever. You killed my mother! You’re an evil cosmic being who tried to end the universe,” Peter said, “and I’m pretty sick of those right now.”

The punching and the yelling about matricide had attracted the attention of the rest of the deadites. They kept their distance, especially Mantis, who peeked out from behind one of Drax’s massive arms. 

“Hey, darlin’,” Ego said, waving at her. Peter scowled at him; it was obvious Mantis didn’t want to talk, so of course Ego would ignore that. Ego was a jerk. “I was just telling my son here how to get out of here and restore the universe.”

“Doesn’t that go against your whole deal?” Peter muttered. 

“I’m so confused,” Little Peter said. “Why do you get your dad? Is mine back there, too? Or maybe Thor?” He peered over the counter hopefully. "I bet Thor would know exactly how to fix this mess."

Which he definitely wouldn't, the kid was dreaming. Thor was a total buffoon. Peter refrained from saying it, though, so as to not upset Drax, who was nodding sagely in agreement.

Doctor Strange was looking at Ego with a furrowed brow, like he’d never seen him before.

“Strange, you saw this, right?” Peter said. “You saw my evil dead celestial of a father in the afterlife and that factored into your whole plan where you gave Thanos an Infinity Stone?”

Doctor Strange said, “Perhaps.”

It did not sound like a very confident perhaps. 

“Perhaps you should drop the Obi Wan bullshit and just give us a straight answer,” Peter said. 

“This is unforeseen,” Doctor Strange admitted.

Ego let out a loud burst of laughter. “Of course it is, little earthling. You think some shiny rocks are the only true powers in this universe?”

“You said you had a way out of here,” Little Peter said. “Care to elaborate?”

“All his ideas are bullshit. He’s just as big a bastard as Thanos is,” Peter said, just so the kid didn’t get his hopes up. Mantis nodded her agreement.

The music playing over the intercom switched from The Coasters to Bowie’s “Heroes.” Ego smiled, something sharper than Peter had ever seen on his face, even during their final battle. This Ego was younger and ready for a fight, and Peter wondered if maybe Thanos’ plans had ruined something Ego had been cooking up.

Maybe they weren’t totally screwed after all. Maybe they were only partially screwed. 

“I have diminished somewhat since my son here destroyed my physical manifestation,” Ego said. “But I existed before I was a planet, and you can’t destroy pure energy with an explosion, son.”

“He’s right,” Little Peter said. “Energy can’t be destroyed, just changed.” He sounded like he was about to delve into nerd territory so Peter shushed him.

“And as you see, I’ve changed,” Ego said, gesturing around the Dairy Queen grandly. “Set up shop here in a whole new realm of reality, and I’ve been gathering up the bits of me that you dispersed over the galaxy.”

“Like a puzzle?” Drax said. 

“Exactly like a puzzle,” Ego said. He pulled a spoon out from behind the counter and took a big bite of the sundae he’d tried to give Peter. “It’s been quite fun, actually. Haven’t had to reform myself like this in quite a few millennia.”

“So how does you still existing have to do with anything?” Peter said, trying not to sound too sullen. Celestial-killer was such a cool title. Now he would have to say he was a Celestial-Disperser, which just wasn’t nearly as badass.

“So glad you asked, son,” Ego said. “I’m going to send you back into the lands of the living, and I’m going to give you something to fuck Thanos’s day up with.”

“Yes,” Drax said. “Peter, I like your father’s plan to fuck over Thanos. Does it include dismemberment followed by murder?”

“I like where you’re at,” Ego said, finger-gunning towards Drax. “Peter? Are you in?”

Little Peter looked at him hopefully. 

“I don’t trust him,” Doctor Strange cautioned. “Even if he is the type of being that he claims he is, nothing can stop the Infinity Gauntlet now that it’s complete.”

“You said you saw a future where we won,” Little Peter said. “So there’s a way, right?”

“Yes, but…” Doctor Strange began, but Little Peter interrupted him. “I can’t just sit here dead and not do anything. Imagine all the people who died like we did. I don’t care if it was part of your vision or not, we have to do everything possible to stop Thanos.”

Peter looked at Ego, who said, “I like the kid. Thanos is a blight. His methods are short-sighted.”

“Unlike yours, which involved becoming the entire universe,” Peter pointed out. It was still a sore spot. 

“I’m a new Ego,” Ego said. “I admit my goals before were unseemly to your eyes. Now I have new goals.”

Peter didn’t want to play into them, but… turning down a resurrection and a possible means of defeating Thanos was, at this juncture, an incredibly stupid idea. “Let’s see it. Let’s see this amazing Thanos-killing weapon you’ve devised while recovering from death.”

“I think you’re going to be happy with your choice,” Ego said, and hopped out from behind the counter. He lead them all out into the parking lot, where he pulled a set of keys out of his pocket. “It’s in here. Watch out, it’s incredibly dangerous.”

He unlocked the trunk of the Cobra, then stepped back quickly. Peter stayed back, wondering what monster Ego had cooked up for them to unleash on Thanos.

After a long moment, Gamora’s head popped out of the trunk. “I’m going to fucking kill you,” she snarled, pointing her sword at Ego. 

“Right sentiment, wrong target,” Ego said. He turned to Peter. “Nothing like the smell of patricide in the morning, right? Thanos won’t know what hit him. I’ve added a little extra oomph to her sword, just to make sure.”

Gamora climbed out of the trunk and brushed off her outfit. She was there, whole and beautiful and pissed off beyond measure. 

Peter smiled, something warm and sweet unfurling in his chest at the sight of her. They were going to destroy Thanos so hard that there would be a Thanos-shaped hole in the universe forever. It was going to kick so much ass.

But first, he had a girl to kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi on [tumblr!](http://nokomiss.tumblr.com/)


End file.
